Soil degradation affects ecosystem services provided by soils, with a negative impact on human health and on the environment. Soil degradation can cover aspects related to physical degradation, such as soil sealing and soil artificialisation in general, soil erosion, soil compaction and reduction of soil water retention and infiltration, and aspects related to chemical or biological degradation, such as excess and depletion of nutrients, acidification, salinisation and soil contamination, and loss of soil organic carbon, soil biodiversity and soil biological activity.
Text as published in the Official Journal, reproduced verbatim (including any typographical quirks of the source). For the authentic version, see EUR-Lex.
